Many people didn’t know what Pakistan was. Right after 9/11, they did…
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Our version of a corsage was a motia flower and though street vendors would sell these readily, they were not durable enough to hang around the hands of people as they danced…
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Australia Day is a contentious holiday, with a growing movement to rename it ‘Invasion day’…
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In places like East Pakistan (before it became Bangladesh), Kuwait, and Sierra Leone there just weren’t that many expat families…
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Latin American films (‘Amores Perros’ starring Gabriel Garcia Bernal), Israeli films (‘Waltz with Bashir’ by Israeli filmmaker Ari Folman), and Asian films (‘Yi Yi’ a film set in Taiwan following the lives of the Jian family from their alternating perspectives) — I revelled in them…
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I still remember sex education class vividly. Condoms on bananas, cheesy videos, and the odd inappropriate comment from one or the other of my classmates. I was in an all-boys school in Perth, Australia…
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To an outsider, the Arab world may seem like a culture where norms propagate misogyny and inequality, but this quote showed that sex is a two way street, and pleasure is bilateral…
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Some swore allegiance to Pakistan, others to Australia and others were in an existential crisis. There was a strange sense of community, which was dynamic and syncretic
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People of such areas are deprived of basic facilities. They have no easy access to big cities, roads are damaged, and elected assembly members visit every five years, never to return within their tenure. But still, they live happy lives...
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Karachi was considered the ‘Paris of the East’, with its roaring nightclub scene sporting live bands, great food and plenty of booze…
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Known for its barbeque, it also has karahis, handis, and other such gravy-based dishes, which the Muslim cuisine of the Indian subcontinent is known for…
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But that was just it. I had to fit in wherever I went. Nobody else had to mould their ways to engage with my understanding of identity and belonging…
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5. The Newly Weds. The couple will be watched like hawks. They are in the most unfortunate position. If they look too happy it will cause an uproar…
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It's only when we got older that moving got harder and more difficult. Each time it felt as though you've left a little part of yourself behind. I've moved countries 5 times in my lifetime...
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The memories of the last goodbye would come flooding back — the guilt that I hadn’t embraced the moment, the feeling of contentment that I had made friends for life, the experiences I had locked into my memory, and most of all, the sadness that this all was all coming to a grinding halt…
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Living half your life in the West and the other half in the East would render one ripe for an identity crisis...
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I confronted him straight away about his lack of communication and professionalism. In an Australian environment this would have been dealt with even more directly and bluntly…
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Declarations such as “shame on them”, “I’d rather my daughter died than bring dishonour to the family”, “she must’ve dabbled in black magic to brainwash that poor boy”, and “I hope they’re found and shamed publicly” were made with great gusto, and to my adolescent brain, conjured up horrific visions which nearly made me throw up my dinner...
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My new friend told me that we share the same piece of land, and the same group of people, so I’m Omani and he’s Pakistani…
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I became the ‘Pakistani Australian’ or the ‘Australian Pakistani’ depending on whether I was meeting Sam or Sameet…
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